Friday, February 14, 2014

Blake Nelson Answers Questions from this is teen Facebook Fans

Rachel Geyer asked: Is there a specific procedure you go through to write a book? Do you need to write in a specific place or is anywhere just fine?

Blake Nelson answered: I
can write anywhere. But I have written many of my best books at my
parents house, out in the woods in Oregon. That’s where I wrote
RECOVERY ROAD. It is very relaxing there. And quiet. And I can shoot
baskets in the driveway if I get stuck.

Lauren Whitby asked: When you wrote Girl: A Novel was it hard to write in a teenage girls perspective?

Chelsea Hogan asked: I
♥ your books!!! Girl and Rockstar Super Star are my favorites, mostly
for their common themes of love and music. How do you know so much about
music? Were you ever in a band? What kind of music do you like to
listen to now?

Blake Nelson answered: Thank
you for that awesome question Ms. Hogan. I was in bands for most of my
teens and twenties, and that’s where I really got in touch with my
creative side and learned how to write songs and how to develop original
ideas and things like that. I owe my writing career to my music
career, I always think. I would have stayed a musician but I wanted to
do something that I could pursue my whole life and not just when I was
young, so I chose to be a writer.

Elizabeth Keaney asked: I
♥ your books too!! Well, I've read Girl and Recovery Road...anyway, not
only do you capture the female voice amazingly (and differently--Maddie
& Andrea?? Awesome!) but you also deliver the reader a mostly
intact heroine/protagonist at the end....have you ever thought of giving
your main character a more "tragic" or unhappy ending? Perhaps instead
of going "back east" for college, they end up like Cybil or Trish?

Blake Nelson answered: Oh
yes, I just finished a new book where everybody dies at the end. So
sometimes I do that. But I like endings where there’s hope too,
especially since—like in RECOVERY ROAD—the person goes through such a
tough time throughout the story.

Alexis Matusiewicz asked: You've
been writing YA fiction for (at least) 2 generations of teenagers. What
would you say are the common themes/ elements in your writing over this
period of time? What kinds of "generational" changes have you made?

Blake Nelson answered: I
haven’t changed too much. Most of my main characters are pretty much
the same. They think about things and try to figure out how to function
in a world that they are just starting to figure out. It’s the
secondary characters that have probably changed a bit. In the 90s my
secondary characters tended to be partiers and were often pretty
superficial and I tried to have fun with that. Now they are often
nerdy or over-parented and I try to have fun with that too.

Alexis Matusiewicz asked: Also,
the movie version of Paranoid Park was one of the best book-to-film
adaptations I've ever seen. Which of your books would you like to see
made into a film? Who would you want to star or direct? What is it like
to put your story and characters in another person's hands?

Blake Nelson answered: My
favorite role, and the one I would like to star in myself, is the guy
in the old 50s teen movies who is wearing a white lab coat and nerd
glasses and has a clipboard and is on the beach interviewing the surfers
about their lifestyle and the strange language they speak. “Like what
exactly does “far out” mean?’ That’s what I have become, some weird
anthropologist. But whatever. I always thought those lab coat guys
were cool.

Matthew Pollack asked: I feel
like your books have been unfairly pigeon-holed as YA. I read Girl on a
recommendation and felt like it could have enjoyed much broader appeal.
When you first wrote it, did you set out to write YA fiction, or was it a
marketing decision from the publisher? Do you ever regret not packaging
your books differently?

Blake Nelson answered: GIRL
was always a weird case because it sort of fit perfectly between the
two genres … at first it was published as an adult book and a lot of
teenagers read it, because in those days, that’s what teens did who were
a little more mature and didn’t want to read more tame YA books. Now
it is the opposite! Grownups read YA books because they like the more
plot oriented (and shorter) and just generally more wholesome and fun YA
books. I don’t care what category my books go into really. I love
writing about young people. So whatever the publishers think is the
best way to do that is fine with me.

Loreen Gilligan Coldrick asked:
Have you decided what your next book will be about? Do you only work on
one book at a time, or do you have several going at once?

Blake Nelson answered: I
usually just work one at a time. Sometimes I will put things away and
let them percolate for a couple months. I did one book that I put away
and dug back out over a year later, and it was still pretty good. But
letting a book “rest” is sometimes the best thing.

Elizabeth Newbold asked: Are any of the characters in your books supposed to be you? If so, who?

Blake Nelson answered: All
the characters in all my books are me, to some extent. I think you
have to relate to every character in some way. Sometimes in thrillers
or genre books, I can tell when a character is just out of left field
and has no actual reality. I usually figure the author could not a
find a way to relate to that character. And you can tell.

Elizabeth Newbold asked: Also,
I'm reading "they came from below" right now. I'm interested to know
where you got the idea for the book. I love environmental books that
discuss the issue through the use of a story. What inspired you to write
this book?

Blake Nelson answered: That
was based just on this one idea: we always think aliens will come from
outer space, what if they came from the bottom of the ocean? All the
other stuff just came from readings I was doing at the time. Mainly
Bill McKibbens, THE END OF NATURE, and a lot of Buddhist stuff I was
reading at the time….. It definitely needed that heavier stuff in it, I
don’t think just aliens from the bottom of the ocean would have been
that interesting by itself.

Thanks again to
everyone who submitted questions. Don’t forget to Like this is teen on
Facebook, and get your friends to do the same. We’ve got many more
author chats planned!